The Indian men's hockey team suffered a damaging 1-3 loss to the Netherlands in the second round of the FIH World Cup match in Amstelveen on Saturday.
India's semifinal chances will now hinge on other results going their way as well as them beating Argentina with a healthy margin on Monday. Netherlands are through to the semifinals after this win as they have six points in this second round.
For the Dutch, goals came from Duco Telgenkamp, Tjep Hoedemakers and Thijs Van Dam while Harmanpreet Singh converted his penalty corner chance.
The match began on an even note with both teams struggling to create clear cut chances. India head coach Craig Fulton would've hoped for improvements in defence after previous games and the players were responding.
India kept pace with the Dutch players. Their zonal marking was working, and they didn't give Dutch players much time on the ball.
After a dull 40 minutes, the match opened up thanks to a superb finish from Telgenkamp. They entered the circle from the right and the ball eventually went to Tijmen Reyenga who didn't get proper connection but the ball went towards Telgenkamp and the forward ensured he whipped it past the Indian goalkeeper.
Ten minutes after the opening goal, the Dutch doubled their lead. It took only three passes for the ball to enter the circle and then Hoedemaekers did the rest after a diagonal run and a deft touch.
A minute later, Harmanpreet, who looked like he was struggling with an injury, came on to the field and converted his penalty corner to give India hope.
In the 55th minute, the Dutch put the game to bed with another lovely finish. Manpreet Singh lost the ball under pressure from a Dutch player and the ball went to Van Dam who came up with a lovely chip to beat the rushing keeper and a touch to put the ball inside the goal.
You can relive the match on our live blog below: